Another one of television’s great dramas has come to a close, and if I were to rank the series finale compared to some of the other big ones from the past year or so, it would probably fall somewhere between the disappointing conclusion to “The Sopranos” and the pitch-perfect ending to “The Wire.” It wasn’t great, but it was certainly satisfying, and it wrapped up just about every loose end other than Aceveda’s bid for mayor. Fans of the series have been following these characters for seven years now, and instead of just running through the episode as usual, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to discuss the fates of each character one at a time.

Vic Mackey:

For as much bad shit that happened throughout the episode, this was probably one of the more shocking of the bunch. A lot of people didn’t think it was possible for Vic to get his comeuppance without death or incarceration, but when you consider the kind of person that he really is, it made sense. Vic only needs a few things in life – family, friends, and a badge – and the fact that he no longer has any of them is kind of like sentencing him to his own personal hell. Olivia said it best after Vic begged her to tell him where his children were: “You said goodbye to them the minute you shot another cop in the face.”

All of Vic’s friends are gone, Corrine has put his kids into witness protection, and his new gig at ICE is a boring desk job typing up weekly analysis reports on gang activity in the city. Some might say he’s got it good compared to what could have happened (after all, he’s only obligated to work at ICE for three years and he’s a free man), but the look on his face when he was being shepherded through the mandatory tour of the facilities said enough. That last moment when he grabs his gun and walks out of the office seemed to indicate that he might actually be okay with the cards he’s been dealt, but if that’s the case, then it doesn’t seem like he’s really paid for his crimes at all.

Shane Vendrell:

I’d like to say that I didn’t see Shane’s suicide coming, but it’s been building to this for the past few weeks. In fact, Shane has been in a downward spiral longer than it may seem, and this isn’t the first time he’s contemplated killing himself either. It’s been so upsetting to see him become this way over the last few seasons (as he was one of my favorite characters when the show debuted), and it’s even more upsetting that the writers decided he was such a selfish person that he would kill Mara, Jackson and his unborn baby girl as well. Shooting yourself is one thing, and you could even make an argument as to why he killed Mara as well (though that’d be a hard argument to make considering she was pregnant), but what about poor Jackson? Shane certainly deserved to die, but not on his own terms, and most certainly not after he’s just murdered his own family. With that said, Walton Goggins has never deserved an Emmy nomination more. His performance throughout this season has been nothing short of spectacular, but the scene with him talking on the phone with Vic was some of his best work yet.

Ronnie Gardocki:

Poor, poor Ronnie. He might not have been as innocent as Lem, but he also wasn’t as bad as Vic or Shane either. The chances of him escaping arrest, however, were pretty slim after Vic hung him out to dry last week. There was always the chance that Vic had a backup plan to help Ronnie escape, and I even thought at one point that he might make a deal with Claudette to renege on his deal with the feds in exchange of letting Ronnie go free, but that became less and less likely as the episode went on. And when Claudette ordered Ronnie back to the Barn after he helped Vic take down Beltran, you just knew it was only a matter of time before he’d be arrested. It’s too bad it had to come to this, as I’ve really grown to appreciate Ronnie over the course of the series, but what I don’t understand is how it’s even possible? Can they really take Vic’s confession and use it to prosecute Ronnie, because if so, that sucks.

Dutch Wagenbach:

Not everyone had an unhappy ending, and if there’s one person that deserved it the most, it’s Dutch. Sure, he wasn’t able to put Lloyd away himself (which was kind of bittersweet not only because that was Dutch’s main storyline for the season, but also because we never actually got to see Lloyd confess to murdering his own mother), but at least he managed to score a date with Billings’ lawyer. Plus, after Claudette eventually does retire (which will probably happen sooner rather than later), he’s probably the top candidate to take over as captain. It’s just too bad it didn’t happen in tonight’s episode, because it would have been the perfect topper to one of the best TV characters of the last decade.

David Aceveda:

After taking all of the credit from the Beltran bust, Aceveda appears to be a shoo-in for mayor. But is that really the end of his story? I was left wondering whether or not Aceveda had any involvement in the death of Andre Benjamin’s character. It seemed too much like coincidence that he’d be shot the same day that he challenged Aceveda at a community meeting (and was doing a darn good job of winning supporters), but at the same time, there wasn’t any real evidence that supported that theory. You’d think Ryan would have at least hinted at it if was true, and I don’t recall Aceveda acting suspicious in his final scene with Claudette. Then again, I wouldn’t put it past Aceveda to take such precautions, and it’s just one of the many questions left unanswered after tonight’s finale.

Now, I know that I said I was going to discuss each character one at a time, but the truth of the matter is, it’s getting late and there isn’t a whole lot to say about the rest of the cast. Claudette has finally cleansed the Barn of all things Vic Mackey, and that seems good enough for her, especially now that she’s accepted the fact that she’s dying; Billings won his case against the city and was rewarded with a whopping two days of pay; Julien, Danny and Tina seem poised for promising careers within the department; and Corrine finally got free of Vic’s control.

All in all, not too shabby for a series finale. From the looks of the comments pouring in on last week’s blog post, however, not too many fans are as content with it as I am. Still, even though it wasn’t perfect, Shawn Ryan deserves credit for being able to wrap up as the series as well as he did. It’s always difficult to say goodbye to the shows you love – especially ones as good as this – and though you could debate for hours on how the show should have ended, at least we got a real ending and not some freaking black screen of death.

Interesting conclusion for Vic. Most people thought he’d end up in jail or dead, but instead he has a desk job and will never get to see his kids again. If there was one thing we knew about Vic, it was that he loved his kids. But his boss was right, he made the decision to go down the dark path a long time ago.

I feel awful for Ronnie – man, did he ever get the shaft.

It was interesting that they touched on Julian’s sexuality for a moment in the car ride. We haven’t seen much of it over the past couple of seasons, but he seemed to watch the gay couple with envy as he and his partner drove past.

Dutch finally gets the girl! Too bad we didn’t get any closure on the serial killer, though I guess we’re supposed to infer that he got his in the end.

Aceveda didn’t have Andre’s character killed. My view is that Andre represented a counter point to Aceveda. While Aceveda is the stereotypical opportunistic politician using the bad things around him to further his own goals (like the ICE bust), Andres character stood against the bad in society (by picketing the crack house) to truly effect change. The end result, which I think reflects some of the moral grey that the SHIELD loves, is that by doing the right thing he was killed, while being opportunistic Aceveda lived.

I’m not eloquent enough to wax philosophical about the show–it was simply great entertainment. Never in my 50 plus years of life have I religiously followed a show except for the Shield, (maybe Johnny Quest). You have to remind yourself that it’s only a television show– you get to care about the characters in a weird way. Even though Shane fell from grace, you couldn’t help but feel bad for him. As said above-great acting. And Ronnie’s end almost hurt me physically–you could see it was coming, I held out some hope for awhile that Vic would pull out one more trick to save him, but I guess it wouldn’t have played out right for the Shield. Poor Ronnie. As most fans of the show, I really missed Lem. The show was so fun back when the Strike team was whole. Oh well–it was a fun (and stressful) ride. I do think it was a brilliant way to end it for Vic–seems myself and everyone else figured he’d die or get sent to prison. Left at that crappy job, losing everything he cared about,– sad but satisfying. I did like the fact that his spirit seemed to be intact at the closing.

I was waiting for a real twist with Dutch. Like he was so obsessed with catching Lloyd, that he actually framed him. Remember a couple seasons back Dutch had this fascination with killing/death. He strangled that cat one evening. It would have been interesting if he snapped and killed the Lloyd’s mother, just to catch the kid. And Lloyd would have been right, Dutch did have something to do with his mom’s dissapearence.

I wanted Vic to tell Ronnie the deal fell through, and to run. He had ample time to tell him, but just let him fry.

As for the end, I would have wanted to see Vic take his gun out, release the safety, and then have the office lights go out. Then fade to black.
Did he kill himself??? We’ll never know. But it looks like he’s going to find his family, or commit some vigilante justice. Great show, until

Vic couldn’t tell Ronnie to run because it would have broken his immunity agreement. Theoretically, Vic could have argued that Ronnie put two and two together himself, but that would have been a huge risk.

Ryan – what do you mean, no real conclusions? Shane and his family are dead, Vic is stuck at a desk at ICE for three years, Ronnie is going to jail for life, Claudette is dying, Acaveda is the mayor, and Dutch finally got the girl. What more do you want?

I have been watching this show since the very first episode. I was always partial to Claudette and Dutch. I am glad they ended the show before she died. As for the rest of the cast….Vic got what he deserved…Ronnie took the fall for everything..and Shane proved what kind of coward he was. I cannot beleive Coren took off with his kids though….I never thought Vic would ever hurt her or the kids. As for Shane Killing your kid is inexcusable. His wife got what she deserved too. Her husband was a criminal and she went down that same path willingly. All in all I will extremely miss this show and all the characters. That is what made this show great. Even though I may not have liked what the characters were doing I still couldnt wait till next week to see what else Vic was up too. So sad what will I do next Teusday?

Two disturbing things about this finale that no one has really mentioned:

1. Even if Dutch didn’t kill Lloyd’s mom, he knowingly put everything in motion that led to her murder by using her to get Lloyd. Given how knowledgeable he is about the inner workings of serial killers, Dutch had to have known that his interactions with Lloyd’s mom were going to put her in harm’s way. Yet he did it anyway because all he cared about was getting Lloyd. How is Dutch any better than Vic?

2. Farmington is about to get much more dangerous given that Vic’s confession and Ronnie’s arrest and subsequent conviction will presumably help many of the perps that were put away because of Strike Team arrests/investigations go free.

The ending left me a little confused for a few minutes, my inital reaction was – this can’t be – that Son of a buck Mackey walks away and the rest of his team is dead or heading to the big house – just didn’t seem right. But reflecting on it, it was an appropriate punishment for Vic. Everybody knows what a rat he really his, no friends, no family, and tied to a desk for three years. I think the last at the Barn was classic, with Claudette setting it up perfectly. She didn’t get what she wanted – Mackey doing the perp walk – but she knew just how to stick the knife in King Rat. Great TV Drama – The Shield has to go down as one of the best.

I was sooooooooooo depressed going into my “office job” today after seeing the finale of The Shield. I too (like others have said) have NEVER watched every episode like I did for the Shield. I even have the DVD series. At 40 years old I have never loved a show as much as I did The Shield. Somehow I just related to Vic in the way that he “thinks” is so much like I do in terms of getting out (and into) trouble. I have never been to jail or even arrested or even in a fight for that matter…I am a goody-goody who maybe wishes that he could be as courageous, clever, and as confident as Vic was! Funny thing is that I live down the street from Anthony Anderson (Antwon Mitchell) in Encino, CA and he is literally the only black guy in our neighborhood who lives like a white guy…clean cut, nice house, nice family, etc. He had a great character to play when he was on the show. Does anyone have any other shows that are as compelling to watch as The Shield was?

This has been one of the best shows of the last decade. I think that the conclusion was much better that that of sopranos. We see that Vic is truly powerless and not in control at all (for the moment).

One important point that no one brought up was the fact that Vic put out pictures of his family right before he left. I think that that kind of implies that he is going out to find them or that he is planning on doing so someday.

God it sucks to be Ronnie. The guy with the slowest change from good to bad. In the beginning of the show it was Vic and Shane, (and Lem to an extent) protecting Ronnie from the bad shit they did. Eventually Ronnie got his face burned off and he slowly descended into the madness that we saw this season.

I’m happy to see that Corinne made it out ok. After seeing how she was cooperating I thought that there might be an act of blind rage, but then I realized that Vic would never risk his immunity.

That few minutes of Shane buying the flowers and the toy car and the call of “family meeting” had me silently screaming “don’t do it.” But he did and hearing Tina call for Claudette was one of the most spookydisturbing elements of the series. In every episode the team tried real hard to differentiate between good guys and bad guys. And killing a wife & children definitely is a bad guy thing to do.

Lastly, whatever happened to the four deaths that were bandied about? Are we counting the unborn baby or did I black out sometime?

I think it was an absolutely unfair ending. I give a shit abut Shane but the end of Ronnie touched me.

The last minutes of the show I thought Vic would realise what enormous mistake he had made by betraying a friend. And the moment he was grabbing his gun I thought – now he is going to get Ronnie out of Jail.

Sorry guys but I disagree with the way the show ended. It totaly sucked! Shane and his family was interesting and I knew Ronnie was going to get screwed but damn I thought vic’s could have been more gripping.

Yeah, I’ve watched since the Pilot and I did expect more of a sentence for Vic than just a simple desk job. I really feel that they brought to light what an ass Vic was the whole time I never noticed and thought he was still cool.

I also thought Billings was the one framing Dutch for the murder. I did call that Shane was going to off the whole family by episode 4. The last phone call between Shane and Vic was way intense. I just got that feeling, which gives props to Shawn Ryan and the actors. I could feel Shane’s despair in my chest. RIP The Shield

I was waiting for Vic to exchange himself for Ronnie’s freedom the entire time. All Vic said was “his family” which is B.S. since he found out Connie was cooperating and they were never in danger. He is a piece of s*^t who deserved worse.

What I liked about Vic’s ending is that all along it seemed like he’d either 1) end up in jail, 2) end up dead or 3) go on the run. I thought it was a crafty move to chain Vic to a desk, essentially neutering him for three years.

Having Vic go to jail and closing up all loose ends would have made it a bad ending because that is not how life is. Bad people sometimes go free or become politicians. Good people have bad things happen to them. At the end when Vic put the photo of his kids on the desk I think that it means he will jump through their hoops but he will try to find where they are. He is very resourceful. I also believe he will make Danny’s life a living hell because that will be his only link to one of his kids. Aceveda and julian need to hook up!